Jodie Foster has blamed the lukewarm response to The Beaver on an American disdain for comedy/dramas.

The film garnered only $104,000 (£64,000) at the US box office in its opening weekend.

Foster told journalists at Cannes: "It's a special film, it's not for everybody. It is an independent film. It's not a mainstream movie, so it wasn't designed to be loved by everybody. It tries to something different.

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"It has a very high concept to it, an absurdist concept, and yet it has a very authentic and deeply emotional side as well - a comedic side and a dramatic side. It has a formality to it - a kind of European formality - and yet it's a story about an American family."

She continued: "It's two stories - the story of the father and the story of the son - and trying to balance those two things. All of those things spell special film. Very often with American audiences they're very uncomfortable when a film doesn't fit into one particular genre.

"That's part of our national heritage - we like it to be either a drama or a comedy. I always assumed that the film - because it does have in some ways has a more European style to it - would be more well-received in Europe and specifically in France and Germany I think than other places."

Foster added: "You make movies because you love them. You can't second-guess how other people receive them or you'll make terrible mistakes over and over again.

"You have to go with the film that you love and the choices that you believe in. The second that you start saying, 'The audience will like this better, the audience will like that better', you'll just make a terrible film."